What do you like best?

It is the best tool to convert your ideas into reality. You have a lot of possibilies with this software. If you want to model, to animate, to live integration, etc.

I love the new feature on Maya 2017, specialized on motion graphics. The most common usage on advertising.

The interface is easy when you learn the basics concepts.

If you learn maya, is much easiest to lear any other 3D software.

The hair system is more realistic and is the most precise simulation.

The dynamics are great but some kind of difficult usage.

The mental ray nodes are great.

I love the integration with another Autodesk softwares like motion builder and Mudbox.

What do you dislike?

The price to keep you updated or with the last version. You cant use some previous versions of models. The Xgen plugin, need to be better. I dont like that the most common 3d objects libraries are in 3ds format or 3d format and Maya doesn't allow that kind of formats.

I dont like the difficult to render unnoised images but it can solve with another render engine.

Recommendations to others considering the product

Specialize in one of the program areas and not try to cover the thousands of possibilities that this tool has.

If you start to learn maya, all the rest of 3d softwares will be easiest for you.

There is a lot of tutorials, documentation and resources.

Is the best 3D software.

If you learn 3D, you will be hired by the enterprises of the moment. Advertising, web, 3d printing (Medical, food, entertainment, etc, markets)

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

Make the unreal possible. Create with certainty what is in your head, in your ideas. I work in the advertising industry so if i need something specific, i made by myself. It make real the unreal.

What do you like best?

Originally what drew me to Maya was consolidation of toolsets into a very efficient tabbed structure. When using other 3D software, many times all of the tools were a cluttered mess up front, Maya not only defaults to a well-organized workspace but allows massive customization and optimization of those workspaces contingent on your needs. The tools themselves are intuitive, as much as can be within a 3D modeling environment. My favorite feature of Maya though, is Maya Embedded Language (MEL), and Python. I love the added flexibility of scripting for custom rigging/setup controls, dynamics, organizing toolsets, etc. It's the total package.

What do you dislike?

The price tag. I love that Autodesk Student allows for educational versions to be accessible for students, but for those trying to continue their education outside of school or for indie teams the price point can be entirely inaccessible. Beyond that, I would say occasional importation issues with different file formats, it's weird to say given the complexity of Maya on a whole but sometimes finding and loading the plugin you need for importing can be a chore, worse when you discover the workaround is importing a file into blender then exporting to *.fbx.

Recommendations to others considering the product

Maya is what I would consider to be the gold standard assuming the features meet your needs. I do know more CAD-minded people who prefer to go the 3DS Max route, but with Autodesk they essentially have whatever the 3d solution to match your needs. Permitting it fits within your budget.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

It's a flexible solution for more than just the immediate use in 3d environments, it's also great for producing effects for post, or even visual simulations.

What do you like best?

I like best in maya , his Unwrapping tool. It's powerfull and easy to use , and it works fine as much with light or dense model .

I like maya for his interface and his use to make Hard surface .

And I'm very liking the Uv attribute tools , he is very useful for some many case.

X-gen is also one of my favorite aspect of maya . To create low and high poly hair.

What do you dislike?

Maya is so complete that become very complicated. It's hard to find or understant some tools.

For a beginner the interface is'nt very user friendly.

Recommendations to others considering the product

No matter what kind of 3d work you make , Maya can match with your idea. But it request some training before to use it easily .

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

Whit the help of Maya , i'm solving a problem of Low poly creation . After i have created a highpoly chlothes in Marvelous designer, i have used the UV attribute tool of maya .Whit that , no need of retopoly . And my UV was already make.

What do you like best?

The ability to create virtually anything I can imagine in a virtual world.

What do you dislike?

The learning curve of Maya is somewhat steep. One must dedicate oneself to learning the capabilities of the program and commit to the time necessary to master it. Once you get past the basics as a foundation, the creation part is fun.

Recommendations to others considering the product

I find Maya to be an extremely powerful 3d rendering and animation program with almost unlimited capabilities but takes some time to master. There are other, similar programs out there, and I have limited exposure to them, but from what I have seen of them, Maya offers the right combination of features, flexibility and price.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

I have used Maya in marketing to present complex machinery in a way that is simple to understand and makes viewers understand a particular feature and benefit.

What do you like best?

The interface and the animation tools are the best. Also, it is one of the most softwares used for 3D in the world both in videogame design and the audiovisual industry. I also like the integration of Arnold as the renderer. The rigging features are getting simpler and more functional.

What do you dislike?

I do not have many complaints about maya software in general. It crashes or freezes sometimes like all 3D softwares. The UV editing features could be improved making UV layout more simple and smooth. Arnold renderer is slow when rendering the final resolution. I also would like to customize the colors of the windows.

Recommendations to others considering the product

The best 3D software for animation and rendering

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

What do you like best?

It has absolutely the best of all worlds. It can do everything from Animation, Rigging, Motion Graphics, 3D Modeling and many more. The possibilities are endless.

What do you dislike?

As having so many features, the program can be very daunting at first. And also, it has less presence online for home base students but more for big companies and big schools. Making the fact of learning it a little bit more difficult.

Recommendations to others considering the product

Be very patient at the beginning. The introduction to the program is very long and it can take weeks for the user to get comfortable with the interface. But do not let that stop you. The rewards from knowing how to use this program are very satisfying as it is the industry standard.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

All the animations that we make are modeled, rigged and animated in Maya. It's very convenient that the whole pipeline can be done in just one program.

What do you like best?

I liked it best about their unending support.

What do you dislike?

The complexity of the UI, it kinda scares the beginners

Recommendations to others considering the product

Wohoo! another wonderful application for graphics designers out there! I'm sure i'm not the only one who discovered its greatness. So here I am sharing to you guys, to the people who has no idea about this application! thank me later! hehehe, try to use this application for goodness sake this is the application used by legends. When you first see the interface, don't be shocked its just the interface. You'll have fun discovering its functions. Soon you'll be able to understand each function. You'll get enough resources though, with the help of google and youtube you'll get through it. Maya is not a new application, it has been there for quite long time so no need to worry for resources. The internet is so big you'll get the information you needed! That's all Godbless! Goodluck for your adventure with maya!

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

I was able to create 3D modeling with this app which helped me make my portfolio for future use.

What do you like best?

Extremely powerful and with all the elements and resources to design practically anything that the mind can imagine. It has an extensive variety of plugins and tools to create almost any object, both organic and inorganic. It allows me to play with ideas and take them to 3D accurately.

What do you dislike?

Having so many tools can sometimes be confusing. Many menus and options for practically anything becomes complicated when sometimes you want to do something simple. It is a very specialized program and that makes the learning curve slower than in other solutions for 3D design. After doing a course with AP Animation School I could make the most of the power that this program offers, as well as see many tutorials on the web to understand how to take advantage of the most specialized functions of the application. Everything requires time and dedication.

Recommendations to others considering the product

When it comes to developing an idea in the world of 3D there is no doubt that Autodesk Maya is the first logical option that comes to mind. Its versatility and compatibility to import and export files of different formats is a great advantage. However, they must understand that in order to get the most out of it and take advantage of the full potential of the application, it is essential to study and train with many tutorials. Definitely not for the occasional user, but if you want to make a career in an animation studio or company dedicated to professional 3D visualization, then Maya is the right answer.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

Many times we have to do 3D modeling of objects that are very detailed, with Maya it has been possible to recreate every detail in the least, according to the client's specifications or the requirements of each project. This is outstanding and gives us confidence to use the leading 3D program.

What do you like best?

I love that Maya's toolset grants me the power to bring my 3D animations to life while allowing me complete control over every minute detail.

What do you dislike?

The interface and production processes needed to produce a simple result can be overly-cryptic at times. The user must be willing to learn the language of Maya before they can really make the most of the software. The learning curve is steep.

Recommendations to others considering the product

Maya is a robust 3D animation package that offers a tremendous amount of power to the user. Whether you need 3D assets, simulations, or animation, Maya offers the tools to get the job done. The sculpting tools are the weakest part of the package, so you might want to consider Mudbox as a companion to Maya.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

Maya enables me to create a library of reusable and malleable assets that are compatible with other software packages. Once an asset is created, it has a long shelf life, and can potentially provide a solution in a myriad of circumstances.

What do you like best?

I appreciate the fact that we can work with references, which makes the work fluidly with high-tesselated geometries. No needs to import directly the parts inside the scene, then the file is way lighter, when for example you have a car + an environment. The management of the layers and outliner are very efficient and clear.

Maya is very optimized for using and editing new Python scripts or MEL in the daily workflow.

The process for creating cameras is very easy, it reacts like real one with all parameters like shutter speed, expo etc... , the viewport give us quickly a good idea from the angle. This is also good that we can lock them. I feel confortable in the use of this software

What do you dislike?

It could be a bit more intuitive, there are a lot of parameters in the render settings which are unexplained and not so easy to handle. And from version to version is always changing, most of the time it's causing more bugs than the previous version. I miss a converter for opening files directly like .stl, .igs, .vpb or even files compatible between 3dsMax and Maya. You always need to do some tricks before to open the files with Maya.

Recommendations to others considering the product

There are a lot of competitors on the actual market, but I think Maya stays one of the bestsellers in all kind of industries for production from animation to still images. There is also a lot of tutorials on internet which allows you to learn Maya step by step.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

What do you like best?

Maya is for the 3D industry what English language is to the word of business. It is present everywhere and this is for me the strongest thing about it. It is a common language in the VFX industry. The performance and vast features makes it a complete package. From basic modeling to complex fluid simulations, its all there. That is the thing I like the most about it. Its performance in stress scenes and having all advance features in one package makes it simpler to think through a problem.

What do you dislike?

For me the only down side is the lack of an indie version that contains all the advance features. LT is too driven to game industry and lack several advance features and the subscription is a bit too much for an indie production environment. I would like to see an intermediate subscription mode for indie studios and artists.

Recommendations to others considering the product

Really check out the performance analysis and take advantage of that to speed up your shots. It can give you a precise indication of what is going on behind the scenes and where you can improve the project.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

Advance 3D modeling and animation research for complex scene assemblies.

What do you like best?

Maya has dominate the 3D industry for years, it can do everything, and lots of plugins/ scripts. This is still the best software for 3D character animation.

What do you dislike?

The stack history. It's really difficult to do any changes. All the operation has to be linear. Unlike the other node based software such as c4D or Nuke, Maya can't change the order of the operation easily. For example, when rig a character, once the rigging is done, it's done. There's no easy way to change the number joints afterwards. It's very bad for mocking up style frames or quick turn round.

Recommendations to others considering the product

Maya is a giant elephant. It's too large to turn. Maya is doing something nice in 2016, but it's not enough. I switched to Cinema 4D last year, now I don't want to go back any more. Cinema 4D vs maya is like Nuke vs After Effects.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

I did my film Kia Rex using maya. You can do everything here from modeling to texturing to animation and finally rendering. It plays well with Zbrush and Nuke.

What do you like best?

I like how much history there is behind it. Maya has been around forever, and because of this, you can easily find tons of resources online relating to free models, tutorials, guides, scripts, plugins, and more. Many of them are even free! Also if you go to many bigger companies, they may have inhouse tools built to speed up workflows. So the compatability is one of the best parts.

It's also pretty versatile. You can do some decent simulations, and textures work, in addition to modelling and animation. It does a pretty good job of all of it in my opinion.

What do you dislike?

The biggest offender for me is the user interface. It feels like it was made 20 years ago, and the way it operates reflects that. All of the UI improvements they seem to be making feel extremely tacked on; The core of the software just doesn't feel right. I am a bigger fan of cinema 4d as a more casual 3D user, since that's an example of a modern interface that's highly searchable, and much faster to learn (shotcuts, great documentation etc.).

I also am note a fan of the History feature...it makes me constantly having to delete history on things, just in case it causes issues later (which if often does).

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

The software's history and integration are longstanding, so the best benefit is general compatability. Make it easy to use files from other previous projects, and people are use to it so that helps.

What do you like best?

Ranging from VFX to Motion Graphics to Games, artists all over rely on Maya to tell their story with one fast, creative toolset. Maya is the first stepping stone to the 3D.

What do you dislike?

One complaint about Maya that surfaces year after year is how difficult it can be to navigate the menus, so it would have been nice to have seen a quick menu option. Each update has loop holes too. Maya hangs up a lot. In that case we need to re install to make sure it works good without any trouble.

Recommendations to others considering the product

If you’re looking to increase your productivity and streamline your workflow, the upgrade is well worth it. However, if you’re happy with what Maya 2017 has to offer, you may not want to rush out and upgrade it yet.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

Maya's proprietary scripting language MEL is highly customizable, and I am trying to work with it.

What do you like best?

Easy to use. Many options for 3D modeling and rendering. Also many options for animating objects for games or videos. Arnold implementation is perfect. Support for scripting languages is good and everybody can make plugins for Autodesk Maya with C++. memory handling is excellent. Options for making custom menus are the best in this industry since Maya was one of the first programs to allow so many customisations for the users. Very good for beginners since it can bring you very fast in the professional word of 3d animation. Easy customisation of menus is one option that I would wish in many other programs like Adobe products or Microsoft Office programs. Options for making hair dynamics are among the best in the industries, as options for making clothes. Ocean dynamics part of the program is unique and can be used very easy since there are a lot of presets.

What do you dislike?

Options for using procedural dynamics are not developed as in other programs. Support for mental ray after Arnold was acquired is not as it should be. Older versions of Maya could open more files than the newer ones. There are problems with opening AutoCad files and even 3D Max files but since all these software solutions are Autodesk products this is not acceptable and should be changed with some updates.

Recommendations to others considering the product

There is no better program for 3d animation right now and that won't change in may years to come.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

3D animations, modeling and rendering are the primary tasks, but it is also good for experimenting with visualizations since in Maya you can solve one problem on many different ways so that everyone can find the best solution for the problem that has to be solved. Since there are also many other user it knowledge can be easily shared.

What do you like best?

I like its overall versatility. Maya is a powerful enough software that you can essentially accomplish anything withing the CAD realm while utilizing it. Maya is the choose software for many companies when it comes to CAD animations, Renderings, as well as a lot of pre - composite work. 3 companies I have worked for in the past use it, and I currently use it now. It is a staple in the industry.

What do you dislike?

After using Maya for a few years now (on and of depending on the project) I have grown to realize that the User Interface could be dramatically improved upon. Although it is technically an Auto desk product, its User Interface is not as intuitive as most other Auto desk software's. Also compatibility with other Auto desk software's is lacking for Maya in its current state. Also compared to other CAD rendering software's, the ability to tessellate raw data is limited due to the machine you use. Other software's I have used have not had this issue at as severe of a degree.

Recommendations to others considering the product

Maya is an incredibly powerful software, but it does come with its flaws. Some you can work around and some you can not. Overall it is an essential tool i use in my career, but I could hope for some updates to make it more user friendly.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

Within my workplace, when we have a need for animation and CAD modeling, Maya is one of our go to software. Being as powerful of a software as it is, allows for a lot of the work we do to get done in house and save us time and money in the long run.

What do you like best?

The best would definitely be the ease of polygon modelling! the support of vray makes it even better for digital designers like me! the power to render in hyper realism and amazing quality of animation shoots it the ideal software for rapid modelling / visualization and animation.

What do you dislike?

Dislike would be the complex placement of important controls, the bugs in plugin loaders, and the most common problem! - crashes during lighting and visualization.

Recommendations to others considering the product

Make the most out if it! it is the future! there is nothing maya cant make or do, be it modelling/ animation. the ease and quality of modelling is very good. and the animation tips and tricks is off the roof!

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

with maya, rapid modelling has been done in important car design projects, visualization and animation is done as well. benefits would be the speed and ease of modelling, and quality of visualization, also the amazing support fot vray.

What do you like best?

I primarily use Maya for modeling but I like that I can also rig, animate, and render when I need to. The modeling tools are always improving and making things like UV unwrapping easier for users. I also like that you can change the menu and panel layouts easily to customize how you work. Maya works well on both Mac and PC.

What do you dislike?

There is not much I dislike about Maya because I don't use the rigging or animation tools often enough but it seems like there is not enough documentation for certain aspects or errors you can get while using the program. Also I cannot access certain plugins for rendering on my earlier year version of Maya.

Recommendations to others considering the product

Watch tutorials and read documentation to get to know the menu layouts of Maya because he sheer amount of tools can be overwhelming. Also if you are unsure about buying the product, there is a free student version you can use if you are a student trying to learn it.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

Maya has given me a sophisticated tool for all my modeling, rigging, animating, and rendering needs. The free student version has benefitted me greatly.

What do you like best?

MAYA with the latest 2106 has become the defacto leader of the pack in terms of DCC apps. The already class leading animation and scripting abilities which have made MAYA the mainstay of studios throughout the world are all there with Autodesk working really hard on making MAYA easier to grasp for new users. With the additions of the motion graphics toolset MASH in the SP2, alongside the acquisition of the Arnold render engine which looks like it will replace Mental Ray, to the already excellent built in Bifrost dynamics system. MAYA is the one sure bet in the 3D industry! MAYA Also has excellent support from 3rd party plugins, for example the excellent GPU render Redshift has brilliant integration with MAYA.

What do you dislike?

Even though Autodesk is working hard on making MAYA Easy for new users to grasp, a lot of the core toolset are hidden or not immediately intuitive like they are for example in CInema 4D. Also MAYA isn't cheap and from July 2016 will only be available via subscription, which makes it a serious investment.

Recommendations to others considering the product

MAYA is the application that I would recommend any 3D artist who is new to the industry to pick up first, for established artist's Autodesk are adding enough goodies to make MAYA worth reconsidering

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

MAYA can handle any DCC task, especially with the announcements of SP2, the Viewport 2.0 working paradigm means that even viewport animations are good enough in some cases for final ouput

What do you like best?

The best part of this software is its ability to sculpt your ideas without much difficulty and with haste, it allows us as 3D artists to create and design forms through a wide variety of tool and options, enabling the use of various selections we can sculpt the 3D parameters from a Raw block to a finely enhanced shape - able to communicate the product or character in all its views. The addition of the rendering tools as well its ability for rigging and animation gives a major plus point to stretch the boundaries of visualization into multiple ways. Personally I use V-ray as a rendering plug-in in Maya that allows me to create a better result in terms of visualization.

What do you dislike?

most of the times I have had difficulty in exporting files to be rendered in Maya- using V-ray plugin. it creates a few glitches which can be sorted by changing few of the importing parameters. the accuracy or tolerance compared to softwares such as Alias or Fusion 360 is not that great, it gives an approximate result in terms of dimensions and precision .

Recommendations to others considering the product

Its a tool for quick sculpt modeling and a great software for rendering ( would be a plus point to have Vray to as the rendering engine). Its ability to rig objects gives the option to animate the products as well as characters - creating showreels through animation without investing on scaled mock ups.

It also has multiple camera options and setting allowing the user to create a realistic approach in terms of visualization.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

What do you like best?

With this program I can quickly animate and render a cad file that I've built in alias. This program is very powerful and can do so many things, but yet it doesn't feel over whelming. There is a great community online and within a short period of time I can learn exactly what i want and make a great final product.

What do you dislike?

My major problems that I have with the software are very minimal. Those being camera controls. I jump around from several different programs those being Alias, Catia, RTT Deltagen and Vred, and I have the most difficulty with just basic camera controls, where the other programs come more naturally.

Recommendations to others considering the product

It is a simple and powerful way to show off your ideas and thoughts in a way that will impress your audience. with in an hours time I can make a car design appear to drive right in front me. this real life scenario brings to life the design.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

I use this program to animate and render my student work, to show to our sponsors for my school program. the ability to have a well done animation and render can make the difference between getting the job and missing it.

What do you like best?

Autodesk Maya is an extremely powerful 3D software and is considered an industry standard in the film and video game industries. Maya includes modeling, texturing, animating, simulating, and rendering capabilities.

Maya is impressive simply because is extremely powerful and offers many aspects of 3D as listed above. Maya also has a long list of big name productions backing it. Having used Maya after learning 3D on Cinema 4D I see that it is a very different software. Maya has higher capabilities than Cinema, including advanced parameters in modes such as simulation or compositing, just to name a few, that Cinema doesn't have.

Modeling in Maya is very intuitive. It is easy to switch between line, point, and face modes. There are also many tools that make it easy to manipulate the mesh, add even cuts, and extrude symmetrically, while still maintaining quality topography.

Rigging is another feature in Maya that I found to be easier than other programs I have used. It is easy to add a skeleton and then set up IK chains. Maya offers soft bind which is more fluid but requires weight painting, as well as rigid bind, which is lighting fast to set up, but will give more robotic movement. It is also easy to add "look at" constraints, such as to create a controller for eye movement.

What do you dislike?

Overall, Maya's interface does not impress me. It takes a while to learn where everything is placed, and to me it seems that certain options are hidden away where you wouldn't think to look. In addition, it is easy to mess up the interface and struggle to be able to fix it.

I also find that some modes of Maya are particularly difficult to work in, especially Texturing and Camera Work.

It is very hard to create procedural textures in Maya. Compared to Cinema 4D, where there is a much heavier focus on procedural textures, Maya makes it difficult to create complex and realistic textures without loading bitmaps. It also it hard to edit materials once they are created. There doesn't seem to be a global materials panel where you can see every texture created. If I am incorrect about this, it also speaks to the obscurity of the interface.

Camera work in Maya is fairly difficult in my experience, mostly because there is no quick way to select a camera to view. You can cycle through cameras, but there is no keyboard shortcut, so it can take a while once you start creating many scene cameras. It also takes a while to get a hang of how to select which camera you would like to render from.

Recommendations to others considering the product

Spend a lot of time researching the different aspects of Maya and how to use them.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

One clear benefit to using Maya is that it is a very prevalent industry standard. It is a must to learn Maya to work in Hollywood-level studios, and many smaller studios may use Maya as well. It also may be helpful in collaboration with other artists who may be using Maya.

What do you like best?

Maya is pretty solid, It has everything you need, from small game animations to big features, you can achieve a lot using Maya. it's really good for modeling polygons or surfaces but is my favorite for animation. Animating with Maya is fast and easy, you can move around keys, animation curves, you can change the frame rate,animate visibility, snap keys,resize animation, repeat post infinity and pre infinity loops. Creating ghost and saving animation are new things that can save you time and money. Maya has also a lot of new features in every version. Rigging with is also friendly and customizable.

What do you dislike?

Modeling in Maya is quite different from 3D Max, you don't have a tower of modifiers, so you can't go back as easily as in Max, So modeling in Maya take a bit more of skill, time and patience. It's harder to do lighting using Vray, but the lighting with Mental Ray is pretty good. Some time maya crashes, that sucks, but if you are careful enough there will be no problems.

Recommendations to others considering the product

Maya is easy to learn, but the more you learn, the more things you realize you don't know, Maya is big and ever changing be patient is worth it. Also don't try to master everything in the software, just focus in one feature at a time.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

With Maya i have work for video games, tv commercials, indie short films and feature films. Maya can do it all.It's also compatible with fbx, photoshop, 3dmax and unity

What do you like best?

I feel Maya is user friendly as compared to other poly modeling software. Maybe it's because I used this a lot during school. The naming convention on the tools are quite straight forward and easy to navigate through what is needed. A big plus factor is that there are a lot of Maya users and thus there are constant active forums where almost any problem can be resolved quickly. Heaps of compatible plugins.

What do you dislike?

Maya can be better but I feel the change with every update is so small that its barely visible. Tools can be upgraded further to use them with ease but I do not see it happening for a while now. The competition software have lighter files and less crashes. It would be great if Maya could improve on displacement maps.

Recommendations to others considering the product

I would say go for it as a lot of companies use this software and hence it makes it beneficial to learn to use this software in Career point of view.

User forums are plenty and can learn easily and solve almost every problem.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

I am currently a junior lighting artist. I use Maya mainly for rendering but I also posses a modeling background and hence I model small components in my scene to add to the realism.

What do you like best?

At the begining seems bit complex software, but after 1 month of use I have realized that I can model everything I want and I imagine, without mention the support grantes by all the scripts. This opened me a new world within design softwares.

What do you dislike?

Extrusion and offset surface tools end up in a bit dirty model with non manifold edges or surfaces crossing. If you desire a clean model you will have to place properly every vertex. This takes hours!

Recommendations to others considering the product

Really powerful, in terms of design you can find whatever tool you imagine, if not I am sure you can find support on all the script people create to make your life easier. It is a software designed for animation and maybe because of that it has much more potential for designing than we think. Just be patient, in few weeks you will wonder what you did all your life withour Maya

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

How easy I can obtain organic shapes and volumes clicking just one button. I can model a primitive shape and clicking one number I turn this into a curved and organic model, it is so helpful!

What do you like best?

I love its modeling capabilities. I am able to use it as my main modeling program, even for projects I plan to complete in outside programs. It is able to handle extremely high-poly models, and has an extension modeling toolkit. The accessibility to the toolkit is also very nice, the hotbox makes it very easy to navigate to Maya's large number of available tools.

What do you dislike?

Maya can be very buggy, which can result in a variety of errors. Sometimes it can just crash at random, sometimes the preferences become corrupted so you have to trash them. Sometimes your maya scene file can become corrupted too, which creates a larger problem. There are also specific bugs, such as using booleans too many times, resulting in Maya shutting down.

Recommendations to others considering the product

Maya is one of the easier 3D softwares to learn, but this does not make it a "junior" product. It has a huge variety of tools and capabilities that are extremely useful to any 3D artist.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

I was able to use Maya to create high-poly models. Within the program I was able to texture and light the model as well. This makes Maya excellent for many tasks within a 3D pipeline.

What do you like best?

I started learning Maya as a student when I first studied 3D. I think that Maya 2013 had a row of display options in the viewport windows which I found massively quick and useful. The right mouse click and hold to display all mesh select options was again very quick and useful which made modelling pretty straight forward as a new user. Also key frame animation was fairly basic to learn including the graph editor. The tools were layed out pretty tidy and understandable. One of my favourite parts was the attribute editor and channel boxes on the right side of the interface was very good they contained quite a lot of scene handling options. The top left had a list of Modelling, Rendering, Animation, Dynamics etc, when selected laying out its own set of tools. Overall a very well coordinated software. Great choice of colour and icon graphics, healthy for the eyes on a bright screen!

What do you dislike?

It all depends on the machines power being used. In some cases rendering can be mega slow so V-ray and Mental ray wouldn't be so cool to use. I also experienced random crashes without auto save on, an absolute wounder when progress had been made.

Recommendations to others considering the product

If you are keen on UV unwrapping, Animation, Rigging, Skinning then Maya is so easy to do these tasks. Especially the UV unwrapping. Its colour coordinated blue positive, red negative, Purple overlapped. Has to be highlight of the software. A great software to start out with or transfer to from another.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

Maya gave me a strong knowledge of 3D as a whole. Again its a great software to start out with in terms of the basic structure and layout of the software. I wouldn't be where I am today in terms of 3D experience if it wasn't for Maya.

What do you like best?

Customizable workflow. Excellent and versatile animation tools. Extremely powerful 3D modeller with tools for Sub-D, Poly, and Mudbox-like sculpting tools. Real time display of models is much smoother than before. Extensive shader libraries. Animation key framing is fairly straightforward to use. Set-Driven key is still my favourite way to animate. Pricing has gone down over the years so it's more affordable than in years past.

What do you dislike?

UI can be daunting to new users. Can have a fairly high learning curve depending on a persons 3D experience. UV texture tools can be inconsistent. Needs a lot of RAM to function properly and can crash if you don't have enough.. Some modelling tools, like boolean, can be very buggy. Shader networks can be complicated to setup.

Recommendations to others considering the product

I used this software for several years and if you need the latest in 3D art creation, this is the software to choose. It does seem overwhelming when you start using it, but with a variety of tutorials out there, you can be up and running quicker that you think. With extensive Modeling, Rendering, and Animation tools, you can create pretty much anything. The leader in 3D graphics creation.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

At the time I needed to create 3D models. Maya is the benchmark for the industry for 3D Modeling and Animation. There's a large user base to draw knowledge and experience from. I used Maya in the past to create 3D characters I needed for several projects. It gave me the versatility I needed in my creative output.

What do you like best?

I started work in animation and then moved into game development. This means I use a slightly different set of tools and I think that is the greatest part about using Maya. In no way do I ever feel restricted for what I am using the program for and there is always more than one way around any issue that I am working with. Also the newer additions that have been added in the last few years have definitely be an awesome additional to the tool set and work space.

What do you dislike?

The .FBX set up could be better. There are a few issues when bringing in previously made meshes that may result in a bit of work. Some of the menus can be a bit hidden at times but I think that is also part of the growing process of the software. Finding a place for every tool can be tricky.

Recommendations to others considering the product

Its not a hard switch to this 3D package from another package given that you understand general 3D software and if not learning can be a fun be challenging reward!

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

Using Maya for games I believe is one of the easiest programs to get the maximum range of tool-sets for every artists. So as a studio to own only one software Maya would provide each role with the full potential to complete their tasks successfully.

What do you like best?

The ability to integrate your output to many other 3D party programs is very useful . Maya's latest Maya LT 2016 , offers users to switch between game engines faster . Maya offers a complete user friendly playground which can be customised . Also there alot of third-party plugins and pre-sets available for beginners and advanced users . The ability to use Maya own scripting language (MEL) is also a valuable asset to add . Almost all external render engines support Maya . All studios use Maya , so if your looking out for a animation job or a visual effects based work environment Maya is your guy to begin with . Once you grab the tools and method of 3D modelling , Maya is become your every day best friend . Trust me .

What do you dislike?

The amount of options available is too much . Other software's have a better layer and texturing system . Maya has a lot of bugs ,but many answers are out there for the problems .

Recommendations to others considering the product

3D's max would be my next choice . But maya and 3d's max has alot of users compared to the rest of the softwares out there . I would recommend Cinema 4D , if you like doing motion graphics and titling . Go for Blender if you are broke .

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

Maya is used by almost most 3D firms across the globe . Maya is considered to be their first preference when is comes to 3D modelling and rendering . But again it only depends on what type of output your expecting . If you looking for 3D CGI , then maya is the best .

What do you like best?

It's great for rigging, once you know the basics and Python/MEL you can make your own auto-rigger. Cloth simulations work pretty well. The simulations look nice and they're easy to setup/tweak to get results. It's not THE best, but a nice start. The modeling toolkit is a nice start, but still a bit clunky. Some settings don't work the way you'd expect, like symmetry in draw mode. Overall, Maya is very customizable and has great documentation for scripting in both MEL (native language) and Python if you're into that. It also has all the basic tools you need for character animation.

What do you dislike?

Dynamic simulations workflow is a pain. Node system isn't full integrated, but there's a good foundation. When rigging its easy to make a mistake, but incredibly hard/impossible to fix unless you're scripting. Otherwise it's a very time consuming process. It would be great if the workflows could be unified, like Houdini's. With Houdini, if I make VEX node tree for a simulation, I can then take that tree and use it in a texture to manipulate it. A lot of the things you learn for 1 workflow will translate to another discipline in Houdini.

Recommendations to others considering the product

It's a must-know software- an industry standard. It takes a few months to get the basics, but to really master it requires a few more years. It's very accessible though, with plenty of documentation for any level.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

Has great UI for organizing scenes and dealing with large amounts of assets. With a custom pipeline its seamless. It does alright out of the box, but again it needs a little love to reach its full efficiency potential. I use it for rigging, cloth simulations, modeling, and character animation.

What do you like best?

I'm fond of the customization and box modeling tools within Maya. I mostly use maya to build out low res cages for import to Zbrush. It's a very wuick workflow for me. The new retopo tools are also quite handy to work with. I have slowly been transitioning to using maya for retopo on my high resolution models.

What do you dislike?

The different viewport modes are taxing on my computer and graphics card. Sometimes the screen flickers when I change from perspective and orthographic modes.

Recommendations to others considering the product

Learn how to customize the quick menu. It really helps in developing a quick workflow. While the new UI has made a great improvement design wise, the menus and location of things can still be quite intimidating.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

I use this mostly as a hobbyist but I have been able to crank out some really good renders for marketing assets using Maya Mental Ray.

What do you like best?

There’s a new motion graphics updates that includes a toolset that’s based on the MASH procedural animation toolset. The 3D Type offers full control over the appearance of text, including precise control over bevel and extrusion profiles, as well as the ability to animate by character, word, or line.

Simulations now use a new adaptive solver for Bifrost liquids that contains high surface detail and low detail below, which allows for even larger simulations than before. The solver uses less particles, voxels, and RAM while yielding the same results as a non-adaptive, dense solve.

What do you dislike?

There is nothing I dislike with Autodesk Maya.

Recommendations to others considering the product

Game designers will also enjoy Autodesk Maya 2016! You can easily move from Maya to game engines such as Unity, Unreal, or Autodesk Stingray with simplified and streamlined game exporter workflows.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

What do you like best?

I am a 3d modeler at work and for fun. The ability to add custom scripts and plug ins with ease is one of the things I like the best. You can easily customize your work space to suit your needs

What do you dislike?

CRASHES. I do dislike how maya can glitch and crash. Any 3d artist knows the importance of saving every second. In addition, this program can be very complex and overwhelming to new folks. Tutorials and practice will definitely come in handy.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

With maya I work on modeling hi resolution base objects, low poly objects, unwrapping and getting my models ready for texture with ease.

What do you like best?

I love that Autodesk Maya is widely used by the entertainment industry, schools, and studios across the world. Because of this, there is a vast amount of help and tutorials that can be found for Maya. The user interface is friendly and after knowing your way around Maya, you can quickly create 3D animations. this was one of the first 3D programs I learned and because of this, it made it easier for me to pick up other 3D applications.

What do you dislike?

Maya was the first 3D application I've used so any other 3D program I learned afterwards will always be compared to Maya. The workflow for modeling and making changes to geometry in Maya is definitely the weakest aspect of the program. Whereas other programs you can make changes to the model after rigging and binding, with Maya, you need to finalize all your modeling beforehand. There is a possibility to change the topology of the model after rigging, however, in my experience this hasn't always worked out as well.

Recommendations to others considering the product

I recommend that you take the time to learn all the tools of Autodesk Maya. Just like with other programs and applications, there are many ways to approach the same task in Maya. Also, setting up shortcuts and hot keys will save a ton of time and make your workflow faster. This is very useful especially when working on tight deadlines.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

Maya is used widely in the film and tv industry to create animations. Using Maya at work, it's been used mostly to work on commercials. The benefits of using Maya is that it is used widely by many people all over the world so there are many artists and studios that use this.

What do you like best?

Maya is one of the most heavily used 3D packages around and that gives a huge knowledge/support base whenever you need help. I also like that there is a native macOS version.

What do you dislike?

The user interface takes up far too much of the screen, but does not display as much information as it should without having to switch between various tabs and windows. Maya's modeling tools have improved in some areas, but many are still far behind equivalent tools in other 3D packages and the "modeling toolbox" feature functions in a confusing manner where the tools in the toolbox are only available when the toolbox is active.

Recommendations to others considering the product

If you do any work in 3D VFX, you will probably come across Maya. It is a good idea to be proficient in it, and if you are a student Autodesk's free student license is huge.

What business problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

I was previously using Autodesk Softimage 3D, which was in many ways a superior package to Maya, however Autodesk discontinued it forcing me to make a switch. As a Mac user, I no longer need to dual boot macOS and Windows to access all of my software, and it is significantly easier to find help with Maya when I need it.